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<title>Slow Dancing In The Dark by Marksfabulousbutt</title>
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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25742950">Slow Dancing In The Dark</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marksfabulousbutt/pseuds/Marksfabulousbutt'>Marksfabulousbutt</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Outlast (Video Games)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Kissing, Nonbinary Character, Song Lyrics</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 02:48:28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,287</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25742950</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marksfabulousbutt/pseuds/Marksfabulousbutt</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Yeah, Joji's Slow Dancing In The Dark vibes hard with this fic.</p><p>Val is Nonbinary. Even if I tag the f/m<br/>this is technically a sequel to another fic I might make but this one vibed too hard not to make.<br/>They're all in high school.<br/>Jessica is alive bc. Ab*se mentions with her btw.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Blake Langermann/Val (Outlast)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Slow Dancing In The Dark</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Val felt sick. The rain came down harder and harder, their head pounding to their ragged heart beat as they sobbed against the wall. A cigarette hung from their teeth, shaking hand cupping the flame to light the stick. The side walk around the building felt like a comfortable place to die. The awning protected them from most of the rain and their cigarette was probably only a little wet.</p><p>The night had been ruined, and she couldn't do anything about it. Lynn had been all but encouraging about Blake, but... Jessica... Val's tears came down harder, and they stood, feet walking them to the truck their Papa lent them. They crawled into the back, fingers hitting the radio to turn it on and to play the disc.</p><p>It was fitting that Slow Dancing In The Dark played. Jessica took the love of their life, and they couldn't even be mad. Blake and Jessica looked good together. Blake and Lynn looked good together. Blake and Val looked like a circus.</p><p>They weren't meant to be together, and they were fine with that, stubbing out the cigarette on one of the ashtrays their Papa had. The world looked so bleak. They closed their eyes.</p><p>-</p><p>Maybe a couple of minutes passed, maybe it was whole years into the future, but the door opened, and the night was darker, and someone sat in the passenger seat. "I heard from Lynn..." Val swallowed a scoff, turning in her seat to stare at the back wall.</p><p>"I'm... sorry." Val sat up, and looked at Jessica, eyebrows furrowing. "For what, exactly? I don't care. Jessica, we're friends... I don't care that you kissed Blake or like him."</p><p>"You sound pretty affected to me." Val sighed. Rain made the vehicle colder than the outside. "Yeah... I do care, but you deserve him. We... can't complete each other. I'd probably expect to much... but you and Blake?" Val laughed shakily, their tears felt like fire. "Blake and Lynn would be a better couple then Blake and I. Besides. I never saw myself having him."</p><p>It hurt to admit it like that. "Loving him, with my whole heart. Just by seeing him at a stop light one day?" Val sobbed. "And it was you in the passenger seat. You were there, and maybe I hadn't been jealous but the smile on Blake's face-" Val wiped their tears.</p><p>"You don't have to comfort me, Jessica. Plenty a fish in the sea, right?" "Blake... had been my angel." Jessica muttered, staring out at the lights around the gym. "I... I was being sexually abused by my school teacher... And I couldn't go anywhere. But... But Blake he..."</p><p>Jessica can see the white of snow, the sirens wailing around her, and Blake there, with a smile that shown like the sun. "He didn't leave me alone that night. And that night, he might've saved my life. I fell in love. Or maybe its emotional attachment... but it's there." Jessica swallowed, and Val pulled themselves into the front seat, dabbing her eyes with tissues.</p><p>"He didn't kiss me back." She whispered, and Val stopped. "W-What?" "He didn't kiss me back. He saw you... He saw you and panicked, and... said he couldn't love me. He loves you, Val..."</p><p>The cold shock that flooded their system, it hurt it was too much. "You're lying." Val whispered, tearing up too. "You're lying, there isn't any fucking way that Blake likes me, because he should be with you, with Lynn! Literally anybody else!"</p><p>Val shuddered, grabbing themselves. "Never, never ever would or could he like me. I am not-" Val turned cold, anger seeping into her muddled feelings. "Get out." She whispered. Jessica stared for a moment. "GET OUT!"</p><p>The poor girl didn't risk anything, opening the door and falling out, stumbling to catch herself on the car next to the truck, slamming the door shut as Val threw the car in reverse and peeled out of the parking lot.</p><p>The disc had exactly one song on it, and they punched the replay button. They wouldn't let themselves be mocked. They wouldn't let Jessica of all people mock them.</p><p>-</p><p>They wished for a crash that they couldn't avoid. But they got home more or less safe. The clock read 12:24 am, so they were careful as they tossed their shoes by the door, stripping their outfit down to under garments and into their room. They tugged a shirt over their head, sweatpants that belonged to Marta at some point and left their wet clothes in a puddle next to the door.</p><p>The faintest of knock's prepared Val of Marta's entrance, and they rolled over to look at their sister who held a cup of tea. "It was that bad, huh?" She asked quietly, setting the mug on the bed side table. "Ha ha." Val said sarcastically, grabbing the hot mug without much regards to their safety.</p><p>Chamomile, generic, but... it got the job done. "Sorry... Guess he wasn't the one?" "He is the one... Just not for him..." Marta sighed. "Yeah... It happens... babe, I'm so sorry." Marta wiped away the flecks of tears on Val's face. "You'll live..." "Without him." Val added glumly, and Marta sighed. "I'll be downstairs. Don't... don't do anything."</p><p>-</p><p>Val was alone, or should've been, the knock on their window startling them awake. Blake, clung to the tree, reaching across with an outstretched hand. He lost his suit, hair mused back in the scatter brain style, jeans and a jacket, all while the rain pours from the sky. Val shoved open the window, tugging in their friend.</p><p>They fell down in a puddle of water and bodies. "I broke... curfew... for you Val." He whispered, out of breath, hand on their cheek. It was cold but steadily warmed as they leaned into it. "Curfew's a big deal... huh?" Val whispered back, their hands reaching up to Blake, touching his damp hair, and running their fingers through it, heart in their mouth.</p><p>Blake nodded, leaning back to gain a semblance of balance, a hand sliding under the curve of their back pulling them flush to his lap, as his other hand touched their neck, pulling them close enough to kiss.</p><p>Its all too much and not enough, the feeling of his warm lips, his hands, his hair through their fingers. "Blake-" They whisper, hands clenching his hair just a tad too hard, the rain still fell, the water dripping on their body, his eyes staring so hard and so soft.</p><p>They felt like suffocating. They never had anyone look at them like that, like they were what they had needed and what they wanted. "I think I was promised a dance..." Blake whispered back, and Val huffed, smiling with tears in their eyes. "Yeah. Yeah, you were."</p><p>He helped them stand, arm right back around their waist, hand on their face. Val probably should close the window, should pull off Blake's wet clothes and shove him into some of their Papa's that became hand-me-downs. But they stiod against him, arms around his waist clenching at his shirt like he'll run away if their not careful.</p><p>He ended up in their arms, in the dark, and went rain falling like it was meant to be. Their breathing wasn't any easier but, he made it so much better. They briefly felt bad for Jessica. That she couldn't have Blake like they did.</p><p>But they knew Jessica was find someone. Jessica would have that person to slow dance with. To hold the world with. For now, Val focused on Blake. Warm like the sun.</p><p>"<em>When I'm around slow dancing in the dark.</em></p><p>
  <em>Don't follow me, you'll end up in my arms."</em>
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